The company formerly known as RIM—now renamed BlackBerry—announced the new Q10 handset, which features a full QWERTY keyboard as well as a 3.1-inch physical 720×720 touchscreen and a weaved back cover that the company claims is thinner, lighter, and stronger than plastic.

It runs the BlackBerry 10 operating system which, as previously reported, is heavily gesture-based.

"We heard you loud and clear," said BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins at the company's official event in New York City. "We built this for people who told us [they] just have to have a physical typing experience."

The Q10 handset will be available on all four major US carriers. In an official press release, Sprint says that it won't be available until "later this year," while the Wall Street Journal reports that the handset will be available in April.

We will continue to update this post as more details become available.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

I would imagine that there are far, far more existing or past Blackberry users who want portrait QWERTY than a landscape sliding version. Even in the Android space, that format never sold very well.

I had a Motorola Milestone. I bought it for the landscape keyboard because I hated touchscreen keyboards. I found myself using the touchscreen keyboard more and more and eventually stopped using the landscape one completely.

It's a personal preference for sure, but I think physical keyboards on phones are definitely going to go away in the near future.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

I would imagine that there are far, far more existing or past Blackberry users who want portrait QWERTY than a landscape sliding version. Even in the Android space, that format never sold very well.

I don't care if it is portrait or landscape (maybe slight preference towards landscape), but I do want a full size screen and a physical keyboard. Currently I have a Pre3 with a portrait sliding keyboard and find it is a good best-of-both-worlds solution.

Sliders do add extra thickness, but given how thin phones have gotten I really don't feel that this is a problem.

Awesome, finally a robot voice app named after Jamie's robotic sister in Small Wonder.

Holy crap, talk about a blast from the past. I used to watch that when I was a kid!

I thought it was an I,Robot reference....but hey, if someone in RIM (I mean Blackberry) marketing was smart enough to realize that this might appeal to their target demographic because of the Small Wonder reference in addition to I,Robot, then there might be hope for them yet...

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

This!

Why can't someone at least make a phone that is not huge and has damn slider keyboard. There are tons of identical models for touch lovers but nothing for those of us who would be more than prepared to pay for the damn slide keyboard. I still love using my N900 because of awesome keyboard.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

This!

Why can't someone at least make a phone that is not huge and has damn slider keyboard. There are tons of identical models for touch lovers but nothing for those of us who would be more than prepared to pay for the damn slide keyboard. I still love using my N900 because of awesome keyboard.

Here is hoping that sailfish lands on one now that BB has refused to.

Motorola's DROID line usually has a slider keyboard, and they're pretty well-regarded in power.

As for this... well, yeah. The Q10 looks like it'll be a good replacement for my Bold if my employer hasn't embraced BYOD before my contract is up, but other than that...

I wonder if this model will be treated as a second class citizen in comparison to the touchscreen model. Obviously software compatibility won't be great: I'd imagine most software would take advantage of the large touchscreen interface.

EDIT there is a touchscreen, just a small one. heartburnkid beat me to it I see!

I wonder if this model will be treated as a second class citizen in comparison to the touchscreen model. Obviously software compatibility won't be great: I'd imagine most software would take advantage of the touch interface.

Technically, this does have a touchscreen as well. Just a much smaller one.

Larger smart phones have the space for very good on screen keyboards. Which is to say smart phones with screens that are wider than the iPhone. That said not all keyboard software is worth the real-estate they are rendered on. The Windows Phone 7.x & 8 on screen keyboards are very very good. I'm sure that there is probably a mix on Android devices that range from excellent to "OMG they put this crap on my phone"

Once you've had a good on screen keyboard, physical keyboards make a lot less sense. In other words, while there may still be demand for smart phones with physical keyboards, that market is shrinking, just like the rest of RIM's customer base.

If this keyboard is anything like the one in the 9900, this is the model I'm buying. I know that, objectively, I could be faster with SwiftKey or somesuch, but that keyboard is just, well, silken. It really is very, very good, both in terms of ease of use and "feel".

I'd have like to see a format more like the 9800-series Torch, but with the 9900's wider keyboard. I suppose that might have made the phone untenably thick, but I liked that form factor and the larger screen it bought. This looks okay, too, as long as they're junking that awful EDoF camera from the 9900.

ETA: a truly cool feature is the ability to use the phone's keyboard (and screen, as a trackpad) over Bridge on the Playbook. That's another reason to use this, if you've already invested in the PB.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

This!

Why can't someone at least make a phone that is not huge and has damn slider keyboard. There are tons of identical models for touch lovers but nothing for those of us who would be more than prepared to pay for the damn slide keyboard. I still love using my N900 because of awesome keyboard.

Here is hoping that sailfish lands on one now that BB has refused to.

Motorola's DROID line usually has a slider keyboard, and they're pretty well-regarded in power.

As for this... well, yeah. The Q10 looks like it'll be a good replacement for my Bold if my employer hasn't embraced BYOD before my contract is up, but other than that...

Funny thing about those motorolas. They seem to be US only and that kinda doesn't work for those of us blessed with living elsewhere Importing from US is generally not the best idea as customs are quite nasty, wrong adapter, no warranty and so on.

Sliders are terrible for actual typing. The distance that your thumbs have to travel prevents you from typing quickly. The portrait style keyboard of the BBs requires very little travel of your thumbs while typing. Also you can type one handed on a BB KB quite easily.

I can type ~30 wpm on a BB portrait KB but only about 5 or 10 on my android slider KB. I thought nothing of typing 10 or even 20 thousand word short stories on my BB 8800 but I would *never* even consider trying that on my slider KB.

If all you ever type is txts and IMs and maybe short emails the landscape KB is fine.

Meh, don't think physical keyboard is a major market share solution. How many top phones have them today? None?

The real question is how many Blackberry users currently embracing this format enjoy their experience and would like to carry it forward to a new device. The fact that none of the other top manufacturers have chosen to make a play for them leaves those users solidly in the uncontested customer space. It would be silly to just kill off the product format that has kept them loyal.

Blackberry is moving to capture target demographics in an innovative way as opposed to trying to release the exact same line of phones based on what everyone else is doing. Other companies are already making a *serious* play for superficial users; Apple pretty much has that market nailed anyhow. It seems their primary focus initially has been to cement their hold over their sliding base and re-expand into their traditional areas of strength: business and government.

It’s going to be a while before this phone actually comes out. BB has been moving so, so slowly… I can understand that on the software side, but none of the hardware looks like so modern that it had to wait this long.

Meh, don't think physical keyboard is a major market share solution. How many top phones have them today? None?

The real question is how many Blackberry users currently embracing this format enjoy their experience and would like to carry it forward to a new device. The fact that none of the other top manufacturers have chosen to make a play for them leaves those users solidly in the uncontested customer space. It would be silly to just kill off the product format that has kept them loyal.

Just about every long-term BlackBerry user I know detests on-screen keyboards. A few have made the leap and the app ecosystem keeps them in Apple's arms, but they're not really happy about it. A few have switched back, and what I see a lot of (in business circles, especially) is a BlackBerry complemented by an iPad.

I think that, largely, Apple et al defined a new smartphone market and really didn't poach very many of RIM's customers. You're right in this sense that RIM has a shot if these new devices can keep loyalists. The unified inbox is a good start, as is offering the QWERTY-equipped Q10.

Where RIM might have a problem is that there's no Curve-equivalent. Bitch as I might about the Curves, they're largely responsible for RIM's growth in emerging markets and it's strength among younger users. I do think they may need to make something like the 8GB Nexus 4 to get that market without compromising BB10 as a platform. What they'll probably do, though, is fire-sale all their BB7 devices. This is bad because that 80-million-strong user base is worthless for developers as apps generally don't carry over from classic BBs to BB10.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

I would imagine that there are far, far more existing or past Blackberry users who want portrait QWERTY than a landscape sliding version. Even in the Android space, that format never sold very well.

I had a Motorola Milestone. I bought it for the landscape keyboard because I hated touchscreen keyboards. I found myself using the touchscreen keyboard more and more and eventually stopped using the landscape one completely.

It's a personal preference for sure, but I think physical keyboards on phones are definitely going to go away in the near future.

I would probably pay money for either a Qtek 9000 with modern hardware, or a HTC Touch Dual with modern hardware. Or any phone with a physical numpad. I have never really been happy with touch keyboards or touch keypads. The phone is just an app as others nowadays, I'm not really a fan of that.

The Windows Phone 7.x & 8 on screen keyboards are very very good. I'm sure that there is probably a mix on Android devices that range from excellent to "OMG they put this crap on my phone"

Yep, the much-underrated Swiftkey on Android is a joy to use. I really like the iOS keyboard too, but the lack of an obvious draggable cursor position marker on iOS makes text editing on it a pain in the arse for me.

Meh, don't think physical keyboard is a major market share solution. How many top phones have them today? None?

Last stat I heard says 1/3rd of all smartphones sold have physical keyboards. Doesn't get a lot of press, but it's a huge feature to have. I know I wouldn't ever think of buying anything else but a slider. Same reason I never bought a tablet... netbook with a keyboard is vastly superior.

And personally, a portrait keyboard just won't work... Biggest reason for a keyboard is a VX ConnectBot SSH terminal, which needs to be in landscape mode, and uses the full screen res of even the best phones to get 80x24 readable... Same goes for games... They suck with on-screen controls, and they're ALL landscape (wide-screen) mode.

Maybe it's true that portrait mode keyboards are faster, but it certainly can't be by much, and most of the programs I want a keyboard for, won't work on a half-sized screen and/or in portrait mode, anyhow, so it's a moot point.

Meh, don't think physical keyboard is a major market share solution. How many top phones have them today? None?

Same here - I don't think it's enough to survive. As for the Z10, lots of specs that measurebators will love, but it all comes down to the software. If they got that right then BlackBerry may be back but if it is just "as good as" the others already offer - and if they fail to convince developers (particularly those with marquee apps) to support the platform it's all over.

The Droid 4 keyboard is excellent. Definitely the best Android keyboard ever. To be fair, I've never owned a Blackberry, so I can't compare there, but I can type much faster and more accurately on my D4's keyboard than on any virtual keyboard. (Yes, Swype is pretty fast too, but it can also guess the wrong word, forcing you to go back and correct its mistakes...)

How would this product get internationalized for other markets with the physical keyboard? I frequently do text entry in other languages (including some non-Roman scripts), and the virtual keyboard on the screen is much easier to deal with.

Meh, don't think physical keyboard is a major market share solution. How many top phones have them today? None?

The real question is how many Blackberry users currently embracing this format enjoy their experience and would like to carry it forward to a new device. The fact that none of the other top manufacturers have chosen to make a play for them leaves those users solidly in the uncontested customer space. It would be silly to just kill off the product format that has kept them loyal.

Blackberry is moving to capture target demographics in an innovative way as opposed to trying to release the exact same line of phones based on what everyone else is doing. Other companies are already making a *serious* play for superficial users; Apple pretty much has that market nailed anyhow. It seems their primary focus initially has been to cement their hold over their sliding base and re-expand into their traditional areas of strength: business and government.

Their approach makes a lot of sense.

Um, this is the OPPOSITE of "innovation"

innovation: the action or process of innovating.• a new method, idea, product, etc.

Making a phone with the same keyboard you had before, in an effort to retain some of your existing customers is most definitely NOT innovation.

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

This!

Why can't someone at least make a phone that is not huge and has damn slider keyboard. There are tons of identical models for touch lovers but nothing for those of us who would be more than prepared to pay for the damn slide keyboard. I still love using my N900 because of awesome keyboard.

Here is hoping that sailfish lands on one now that BB has refused to.

Motorola's DROID line usually has a slider keyboard, and they're pretty well-regarded in power.

As for this... well, yeah. The Q10 looks like it'll be a good replacement for my Bold if my employer hasn't embraced BYOD before my contract is up, but other than that...

Funny thing about those motorolas. They seem to be US only and that kinda doesn't work for those of us blessed with living elsewhere Importing from US is generally not the best idea as customs are quite nasty, wrong adapter, no warranty and so on.

I agree, here in Europe, it is damn hard to find a phone that has both current hardware and a sliding keyboard. They just don't sell them...

I wonder if RIMBerry will ever learn the concept of a landscape sliding keyboard. Not everyone likes portrait QWERTYs, Blackberry stock-in-trade or no.

I would imagine that there are far, far more existing or past Blackberry users who want portrait QWERTY than a landscape sliding version. Even in the Android space, that format never sold very well.

I had a Motorola Milestone. I bought it for the landscape keyboard because I hated touchscreen keyboards. I found myself using the touchscreen keyboard more and more and eventually stopped using the landscape one completely.

It's a personal preference for sure, but I think physical keyboards on phones are definitely going to go away in the near future.

Definitely a preference. Having had the original DROID, I almost never used the softboard. Currently equipped with a Photon Q (aka Sprint's DROID 4-a-like) I still rarely use the softboard. When the Photon dies out, I'll keep on with a QWERTY slider. It's just preference and while there's a market for it, I don't see it going away. Lessened to the point of niche, sure, but then again, so's the QWERTY portraits.

The Windows Phone 7.x & 8 on screen keyboards are very very good. I'm sure that there is probably a mix on Android devices that range from excellent to "OMG they put this crap on my phone"

Yep, the much-underrated Swiftkey on Android is a joy to use. I really like the iOS keyboard too, but the lack of an obvious draggable cursor position marker on iOS makes text editing on it a pain in the arse for me.

You only need to tap and hold in a text box to bring up a magnifying lens with a drag gable cursor position marker.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.